Why not try going without the so-called rock guard for a while and see how it goes? You may find your toad will suffer less stone chips and stay cleaner.

I removed mine at an RV Park in Whitehorse, YK after fighting with stones covering my toad everyday on our way to Alaska. Prior to departing, I had raised the flap from 4″ clearance to 6″ clearance on the advice of our caravan organizer to prevent the flap from dragging on the ground going through some of the dips in the highway.

Turns out that even at 6″ the flap was still causing small stones to be tossed up and covering my toad.

In Whitehorse our Wagon Master suggested removing the flap altogether. So on his advice, I made arrangements with the park owner to leave it and pick it up on our return.

Lo and behold, there were no more stones and the toad seemed to not accumulate dust and mud as it did with the flap.

When we returned to Whitehorse, I told the RV park operator he could just dispose of the flap as I was now convinced it was doing more harm than good.

That was three years ago and I have not regretted its removal. In fact, I used to use a Guardian Rock Guard and a custom windshield cover which I have not used in over 15,000 miles and I have zero stone chips to the toad.

Others I have talked to along the way have gone the same route and are very happy with the results.

Worth a try.

I’m going to do a bit more research. I have seen some toads that have extensive damage on the front end due to stones being thrown up from the back of the coach.

I’d like to keep the toad in good shape.

That problem would obviously go away if I used a trailer but for now our plan is to tow four wheels down.